Alphabet Art

Monrad, Anders

About the work

Alphabet-art is a piece for 15 unspecified instruments + piano. The 15 instruments are divided into 3 groups of 5 instruments.

The Piece reflects my interest in visual-arts and graphic design. It is inspired by the “4 colour print” technique, based on pixels in the 4 basic colours. The piece thus consists entirely of repeated staccato-notes in a fast tempo. The 5 instruments of each group are handled as one instrument, playing one melodic line all together. Therefore the piece actually consists of three parts, rather than 15. Within each group the same pitch is played in different rhythms based on prime numbers. In this way they don’t add up, but constantly generate new combinations of instruments, achieving an overall uncertain timbre – resembling the “4-color print” where pixels of the 4 basic colours together create all kinds of mixed colours.

In addition I have included actual ”visual” images into the score – where the notes on the different staffs together form the shapes of letters from the alphabet. The Title thus refers to the comic book “Tintin and the Alphabet-art”. This slightly self-ironic reference opens up the possibility that my musical alphabet-art might just be another temporary craze – like the alphabet-art craze in the comic book…

AM

Origin

Open Score RAM student 2010